Half of the teams will go home after all the matches in the group stage, while the other half, including China, will be lucky enough to stay and fight for their goals.

Of course, it has been carried out to the knockout stage, and all the teams are more or less, and each player, strong or weak, has the idea of going as far as possible, or even going to the end.

The single-game knockout round, more accidents, greater variables, strength in the knockout stage is only an important part of the whole part, only the most strong psychological, will, individual and team team, can advance with their heads held high.

When almost all the media looked forward to the knockout round, they were unanimously optimistic that Spain, Portugal, France, and Argentina could advance smoothly. Iceland, Costa Rica and China, the three teams that have shown or are showing their dark horse qualities, most of the media have not asserted it, and they are in a cautious and expectant wait-and-see state. A move forward for any of these three teams would mean a shocking upset, with at least one of the three world-class traditional powerhouses, France, Germany and Brazil, being kept out of the quarter-finals. It also means...... This World Cup will form a new pattern of championship competition.

Between the group stage and the knockout round, there are about four to five days, and for the Chinese team, it is a little longer. The quarter-finals between China and Brazil are scheduled for the penultimate of eight knockout matches, with China having five days to adjust and prepare from the group stage. For Lippi's coaching staff, the five-day task can be quite onerous.

In the past, the Chinese team was directly eliminated from the group stage in continental competitions for a long time, so most of the players were blind to the knockout round and had no experience at all. Moreover, the single-game elimination system of the World Cup is very different from the two-legged knockout round of the Champions League, and the experience accumulated by Wen Zhihao in the Champions League is not fully applicable. I didn't know my opponent well, I left the opportunity to turn the tables in the second leg, and I wanted to stay on this stage and continue to move forward.

At such a juncture, the biggest asset of the Chinese team may only be the experience of head coach Lippi who once led the Italian team all the way to the final championship, and the work of the coaching staff in the past few days is quite heavy. It is necessary not only to study the characteristics of the Brazilian team at the tactical level to make targeted deployments, but also to instill in the whole team the experience of coping with the knockout rounds of the World Cup.

Everything that Lippi emphasized to everyone can be summed up in four words: attack! Active!

"In the knockout stages of the World Cup, there is no way back for us to take a step back, and if we want to go down, we have to be courageous. Costa Rica, the biggest dark horse of the last World Cup, is the most vivid example. Against the Netherlands, they held on perfectly for 120 minutes, and defended desperately for half an hour of extra time, but still lost on penalties in the end. Therefore, it is the offense that wins the game. Brazil are very strong, but now they are not the dream samba army, forget all the strong impressions you have of them in the past, I said when I faced Germany, against such a strong team, you can lose 99 out of 10 games, but we didn't lose the last game. The first thing to look at in the top matchup is the mentality, what kind of mentality you use to face your opponent, and how the final result will be rewarded for you. ”

……

The Chinese team returned to Sochi a day later, and the venue for the quarter-final against Brazil was the Olympic Stadium in Sochi, which brought the Chinese team its first World Cup victory, and in the eyes of Chinese fans and media, it is already a blessed land for Chinese football. Although the vast majority of Chinese do not believe in God, many still believe that there is a providence in the underworld, does this suggest that the Chinese team will perform a miracle here again?

Although the Brazilian team has Neymar and 2014 Golden Boy Award winner Jesus leading the front, their midfield is not obvious compared to the Chinese team, only Coutinho is a real attacking brain, Paulinho and Renato Augusto Chinese team players are no strangers, the former and more than half of the Evergrande players in the Chinese team are former teammates, and Wen Zhihao has been with Paulinho countless times in La Liga, and it is Paulinho who suffers. As for Augusto, he is simply a foreign aid in the Super League, and this Beijing Guoan midfielder is not a top foreign aid in the Chinese Super League. Those who win the midfielder win the world, this is the confidence of the media.

……

With the results of the quarterfinals being decided one by one, the time for the Chinese team to play is getting closer and closer.

What is surprising is that in the previous four games of the Chinese team, there was really an upset.

One of the favourites to win the tournament, the number one favorite France, who are favored by the bookmaker, after 120 minutes of fierce battle, was reversed by Iceland 2:1, and the small Nordic nation of Euro 2016 broke into the quarterfinals of the World Cup.

And with the emergence of this super upset, the media is more interested in the next game.

At the pre-match press conference, a reporter from the local TV station in Sochi asked Wen Zhihao a question that seemed very brainless, but very practical: "In the face of the Brazilian team, how sure do you think the Chinese team is?" ”

Faced with such a problem of digging a little pit and offending people if you don't pay attention to it, Wen Zhihao took a biased sword and replied: "At the beginning of the game, the score was 0:0, and every point had to be grasped by everyone's hard work on the field, and we only focused on studying the opponent. ”

"What do you think of the Brazilian team?" A reporter from Brazilian television asked.

Wen Zhihao thought for a moment and replied: "It should be said that it is very familiar, I have played against Casemiro and Paulinho many times. As for the result...... Everyone knows it in their hearts, so I won't say more. ”

The reporters sitting below coaxed slightly, and they all heard the confidence conveyed behind Wen Zhihao's not fierce expression, as well as ...... Fearless.

The reporter's expression froze, and he continued to question: "But the Brazilian team has a brilliant record in the World Cup, five-star Brazil, this heritage is genuine, and the Chinese team does not have it." ”

Wen Zhihao looked at his serious expression of argumentation, suddenly showed a smile, and said, "These things, experienced once, will naturally be there." And Mr. Reporter, when the Brazilian team won the championship last time, I was only two years old, and the five-star Brazil is just a noun for me. How many years has the term five-star Brazil been called, and why hasn't it been changed to six-star Brazil? Five stars are already history and can only represent the past. Historical things can't be brought to the present. Otherwise, China should be the hegemon of the football world, although you come from the football kingdom, you don't necessarily know the history of football thoroughly, right? It doesn't matter, you can give all journalists a free science popularization. Football, first called Keju, originated in China a thousand years ago ......"